Time to rejoice for all the gaming fans.

The popular flight action game, Ace Combat could be coming soon to the iPhone.

This was revealed by the developers of the game, Namco Bandai at the Tokya Games Show 2009 where a demo of the upcoming iPhone game, Ace Combat Xi was on display.

Considering that a game like Ace Combat requires terrific skill in maneuvering and shooting targets – something that could be pretty difficult on a small screen like iPhone’s, reviews show that Namco Bandai has done an excellent work in making it so simple to ‘fly’ and ‘shoot down’ enemies.

Players control the flight movements with tilting the iPhone while all other controls like throttle, selecting and firing weapons are all available as icons on the screen.

Here are a few reviews from those who were able to try their hands at the game:

“iPhone Ace Combat plays pretty much how you’d expect it to, but for a series that’s as huge on control and precision as Ace Combat it’s awesome to see that Project Aces managed to squeeze all the controls from the main game into the tiny platform.” – IGN’s Mark Bozon

“The demo level I played was a simple enough matter of keeping enemy fighters (who were very far away and therefore tiny on the screen) in target lock until the icon turned red, then tapping the “missile” icon and watching them explode. For a bite-sized Ace Combat experience, that seems like enough. The graphical presentation is somewhere in the early PS2 era, which is to say very impressive for an iPhone experience.” – JC Fletcher,Joystiq.com

You can checkout the demo video of Ace Combat Xi for iPhone below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

While the demo of the game was available on iPhone 3GS, Namco Bandai are believed to be working on providing a similar experience on iPhone 3G as well. ‘Ace Combat Xi’ is expected to be available on the iPhone App Store sometime in the winter.

If you are a fan of Ace Combat like we are, let us know in the comments how much will you be ready to pay for this iPhone game.

-Source

Well how about that. A Commodore 64 emulator for iPhone is nothing new — we covered the fact that one had been developed a little while ago. Here’s what is new (and a little surprising, to be honest): Apple approved it. In an environment where Apple seems intent on rejecting anything that might encroach on their platform, even just a little bit, they have apparently allowed an emulator right there on the App Store.

There are catches, of course — the emulator comes bundled with five officially licensed titles: Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck and Jack Attack, and more will be available to purchase soon, so it’ll all be above board and legit (and the flip side is that if you want to play classic titles like Elite or Ultima, you’ll have to hope that whoever owns the rights to those will let them see release). The biggest catch is that the emulator doesn’t come with BASIC support enabled by default (although, via Daring Fireball and the iPhone Blog, it’s possible to get to it via a backdoor), so it’s more of a C64 arcade emulator rather than an actual software emulator.

But of course this is a step in the right direction — someday we may finally see official SNES or NES emulators running in full glory on the iPhone and approved and available to purchase on the App Store. This emulator, simply called C64, is available right now on the App Store for $4.99.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you were excited by the prospect of Assassin’s Creed appearing on the iPhone, well, good for you. Just a word of advice, though: you might want to scale that excitement back a little.

Why? Because the game isn’t a new title, developed with the iPhone in mind to take advantage of the platform’s numerous strengths. It is instead a port of the DS version of the game, which was short, and ugly. Just what the iPhone needs! Another port!

This version will be just as short, only less ugly, with the graphics getting a touch-up for Apple’s more powerful handheld. It will also include the touch-sensitive mini-games from the DS version.

Assassin’s Creed: Exclusive First Look [IGN]

As part of the countdown to the one billionth download from the iTunes App Store, Apple has released lists of the all-time top paid and unpaid apps, with Crash Bandicoot riding high.

Video games represent 14 out of the 20 all-time top paid applications in the iTunes store, and it really isn’t a surprise to see a launch title like Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart Racing 3D top the list. It’s an application that really shows off what the iPhone is capable of, so it naturally became a go-to title when new visitors to the store took their first steps into the games section. Super Monkey Ball and Enigmo were among other launch games to make the list, with familiar names like Monopoly, Tetris, and Bejeweled 2 also catching customers’ eyes.

On the free side of things, only six games made the cut, including Tap Tap Revenge, which comes in at number four. This conflicts with the report last week that listed Tap Tap Revenge as the most downloaded iPhone title by comscore, but there’s a perfectly good explanation: comscore counted installed units and not download numbers, and their data only extended through February of this year.

So congratulations to Crash Bandicoot! Your console star might have faded, but the less informed still remember your name.

Apple: Crash Bandicoot most downloaded paid app on App Store [GamesIndustry.biz]

Assassin’s Creed 2 may be well underway, but it’s not the only AC game on thehorizon, as it’s been announced today that mobile port specialists Gameloft will be bringing the series to the iPhone.

Apparently the gameplay will still feature free-running over city rooftops and across multiple cities, though we’d think these would be smaller in scale than the game’s console counterparts. Still, nice to hear Gameloft are at least trying to capture some of the main game’s feel, instead of just sticking Altair behind some sandbags and have him throw knives all day.

There’s no word on a release date or price as of yet.

Oh, fun fact: Assassin’s Creed is owned by Ubisoft. Ubisoft is run by Yves Guillemot. Gameloft is run by Michel Guillemot, Yve’s brother.

Assassin’s Creed leaping onto iPhone [Pocket Gamer]

When Konami announced that they will be releasing their stealth action video game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns for the Patriots for the iPhone and iPod Touch on the App Store aptly called Metal Gear Solid Touch, I was very excited. They recently launched a preview website for their upcoming iPhone game. Unfortunately after seeing the demo video of the game I was quite disappointed. Metal Gear Solid is one of the most well embraced console series of all time selling 26.5 units worldwide. Metal Gear Solid Touch is an original game in the series that will bring the world and characters of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots to the iPhone. As per the preview website:

Wage battle using intuitive touch-based shooting controls. Solid Snake’s final battle recreated on the battlefield of your 3.5-inch widescreen display!

The preview website also provides more details of the game’s control system. You can also checkout the demo video of the game below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

As you can see from the video, Metal Gear Solid for the iPhone appears to be some sort of rail-based shooter. You use your finger to aim and tap the screen to shoot; to zoom in and enter snipe mode, you pinch out (spread your fingers); to zoom out, you pinch in. I can’t understand why Konami choose such controls which makes it a lame rail-based shooter game, its quite disappointing.

The choice of controls for the iPhone game is even more intriguing if you see the preview video of Metal Gear Solid for Nokia’s N-gage below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Konami will also be releasing the game in two editions. The special “advance release edition” will be released first and you will be able to save your progress for the “final release” which will be released at a later date. The final release will be a free update for those who have bought the special “advance release edition”.

When I start playing a game, I usually prefer to complete it as soon as possible. It will be quite annoying to wait for the final release after completing the special “advance release edition”.

Metal Gear Solid Touch will be released in Japan, North America and Europe in Spring 2009.

What do you think about Metal Gear Solid Touch? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.

[via Touch Arcade]

Guys over at Engadet.com gad some good info on Apple iPhone

According to extremely reliable and embarrassingly handsome Engadget sources, at an iPhone event held today, John Geleynse (AKA Director of Technology Evangelism at Apple) made some statements regarding the iPhone platform that should seriously raise a few eyebrows. During an ADC “iPhone Tech Talk” in San Jose, Geleynse apparently waxed excited about the potential for the handheld as a viable threat to the DS (and the PSP by proxy), calling the iPhone a “gaming console” and claiming that “it’s not a phone, it’s a console experience.” Pretty bold talk about a device that has yet to really prove its gaming mettle, but nothing new from the Apple camp as far as we’re concerned. Considering these comments alongside those from a recent interview in which Greg Joswiak compared the touch to the DS, it seems clear that the company is making a noticeable effort to push this angle. Adding some fuel to that fire is PR that just went out announcing a series of EA “sneak peek” events at Apple Stores around the US. In their words:

Throughout the month of December Apple Stores in New York, LA, San Francisco and Chicago will host special “EA Games Sneak Peek” events where Electronic Arts will discuss why the iPod touch and iPhone are amazing platforms for mobile gaming…

While there’s no question the iPhone and touch have made inroads when it comes to gaming, it still isn’t clear that there’s going to be anything beyond a casual interest for these devices. Then again, if the Wii’s success has proven anything, it’s that there’s plenty of cash in casual if you can make it appealing enough. And you know how Apple feels about appealing products and money.

Marware is planning to release an accessory called Game Grip for the iPhone which as the name suggests are silicone sleeves that provide hand grips on either side of the iPhone designed to enhance the gaming experience of accelerometer-based iPhone games.

Flickr user ronnsprocket seems to have liked the idea but not the high cost of $50 of the iPhone game accessory as he has created a free version of the iPhone accessory out of a cardboard box which is similar in functionality to Marware’s Game Grip.

As you can see from the photos below Flickr user ronnsprocket has created a free version of the iPhone accessory which is similar in functionality to Marware’s Game Grip using a cardboard box, an X-Acto knife and some glue.

The photo of Marware’s Game Grip below:

The photos of ronnsprocket’s DIY: iPhone Game accessory below:

We had liked the idea behind iControlpad, an iPhone accessory which brought physical buttons and a joypad to the iPhone but not sure if we really need an iPhone game accessory like Game Grip to enhance gaming experience on the iPhone.

What do you think?